Until We Return

January 17
Where have we gone wrong—as a nation, as a people, as a church, as individuals? Of course the answer to that question can be as complex as we desire to make it. It would be impossible within these few lines to even begin to identify a fraction of our trespasses or the most evident of their consequences.

But there is a verse that capsulizes our problem. In fact, to this source can be traced the entirety of our sins and foibles; to it can be linked the whole of our departure from the path of life and truth and the resultant journey we’ve begun on the path of unrighteousness.

David, Israel’s sweet psalmist, mighty warrior and victorious king said in Psalm 119:165, “Great peace have they who love Your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” Peace and sure footing as we traverse the path of life are achieved when people love the law of God. If we assess ourselves accurately, we must acknowledge that we have departed from a love of God’s law—perhaps we don’t love even Him anymore.

Our government—from allowing abortion to indulging astronomical debt—engages in practices that are forbidden by the law of the Holy One. We as citizens have voted for politicians who have compromised the eternal law of God to satisfy the immediate desire for gratification of a wanton people. Because we don’t love the law, we don’t uphold it—and because we don’t uphold it, we don’t walk with a sure step in the peace it supplies. Until we return to God and His immutable law, we will stumble in darkness.